Die by the Sword
by Verdant Fire
Summary: “I came to tell you that I’ve figured out what my duty is as the Sword of the Jedi. I’m here to kill you, Jacen.”  Speculative LotF oneshot.


A/N: This was written about six months ago for a challenge on another site. In my defense, the climax of the LotF series was slightly less obvious at the time. ;)

* * *

Jacen Solo cut off his lieutenant's status report with a brief flick of his hand and raised his voice to address his bridge crew. "Leave me." They did as they were ordered, skittering off to other posts as he stretched out his senses to confirm what he had just felt through the Force. 

The Force had not betrayed him. The time had finally come.

"Hello, Jaina."

Jaina's petite frame stood silhouetted against the entrance to the command bridge, her traditional Jedi robes masking her figure and giving her an almost child-like appearance.

"Hello, Jacen."

He turned to face her with a nonchalant air. "I've been waiting for your visit. I was rather disappointed that you didn't come to comfort me after Mom and Dad left us."

He could feel her struggle to contain her rage and was pleased. He would win this fight quickly. She crossed the bridge with a fluid grace and stared him down, her eyes full of pain, anger and resolve as she addressed him.

"I'm sure I would have if you hadn't killed them."

"An unfortunate accident. History will vindicate me. Actually, it already has." He grinned, but the expression never quite reached his eyes.

Jaina snorted in derision at his arrogance. "I came to tell you that I've figured out what my duty is as the Sword of the Jedi. I'm here to kill you, Jacen."

He smiled contentedly. "Then you'll have the blood of both brothers on your hands. What kind of a sister would that make you, I wonder?"

Jacen could feel her thoughts and emotions whirl as his barb hit home. "Anakin made his own choices." His sister's brandy eyes hardened. "As for you, my twin died years ago. If he were still alive he'd kill you himself."

"I was too weak for such a deed then." He drew his lightsaber coolly, almost casually, the smoldering crimson throwing his features into sharp relief as he continued speaking. "But I've moved past my youthful idealism. Now I do what needs to be done."

She shifted into a dueling stance and ignited her violet blade, its snap-hiss echoing off the cold durasteel walls. "Then you'll understand."

Their lightsabers clashed in a buzzing cacophony as Jaina made the opening move, cutting in viciously for Jacen's throat as he parried to her left. She spun away, bringing her weapon up to block his fierce thrust to her chest, but he anticipated her and slashed for her stomach instead. She sensed his feint through what was left of their twin bond and threw herself into a flip just in time, landing behind him. He twirled and hammered his lightsaber against hers, the impact almost driving her to her knees, but she held her ground as their blades locked. He laughed harshly, a low, visceral chuckle that made her skin crawl.

"You've been practicing."

She grunted as she pushed his blade off of hers with a powerful thrust. "I didn't want to make it too easy for you."

"I appreciate it." He leaped at her and assaulted her defenses with a flurry of strikes, his lightsaber weaving a solid wall of red as he moved faster than any human had a right to. She had no time for thought, no time to react, so she subjugated herself to the Force, swiftly dodging and blocking as his blows rained down. Continuing to let the Force flow through her, she steadily regained the offensive, earning back the ground that she had lost.

As she and her twin sparred with ever-increasing intensity, a memory came to her unbidden: Jacen at the Academy, twigs and leaves still in his hair from one of his zoological excursions, telling one of his stupid jokes that had made everyone groan. She clamped down on the thought and cast it aside. The brother she'd loved would have gladly died rather than become this monster she was fighting.

The sibilant hiss of Jacen's lightsaber by her ear snapped her concentration back to the present, and she ducked as his blade arced through the space where her head had been.

"Distracted, sister dear?"

"Not at all. Just planning your funeral." She and Jacen circled each other warily, each looking for a weakness but finding none. He had strength and reach, while she had speed and maneuverability, making them evenly matched. But sooner or later one of them would make a mistake, and Jaina intended to make sure it wasn't her.

She shot at Jacen with an impassioned cry, her amethyst blade meeting his ruby one again and again as she battled her brother. He deflected every one of her blows, moving with a deadly efficiency. He didn't even seem winded, and Jaina knew she would have to switch tactics if she was going to survive. She angled her blade to block his and shielded her mind as much as she could, determined not to let any hint of what she was feeling seep through. Jacen laughed, and Jaina suppressed a shudder. This . . . _Sith_ didn't even have Jacen's voice anymore.

"Do you really think you can keep me out, Jaina? You have no idea how powerful I am now." He wagged the tip of his lightsaber at her, as if he were chastising an errant child. "If you give up now, I might let you live for old times' sake. I haven't even shown you what I can do yet; you know that."

Jaina drew herself up to her full height and locked eyes with Jacen, feeling her heart go cold as she saw something irretrievably broken in their depths. "And you know that I won't stop fighting you until one of us is dead."

He sighed petulantly. "A pity. I was just starting to have fun. But I'll end it if you insist." With that, his face contorted into a feral grin, and he attacked her with a speed and skill she hadn't thought possible. She parried his advances as best she could, but it took all her strength just to maintain her defenses; she had no hope of landing a blow. She gritted her teeth as Jacen steadily drove her back, closer and closer to the corner of the room. Her arms were trembling; she wouldn't be able to hold him back much longer.

Growing desperate, she pirouetted to his right, her violet saber lancing through his guard, but he adapted quickly. Too quickly. His blade spiraled down the length of hers, twisting her weapon out of her grasp. Her eyes widened as her lightsaber was wrenched out of her hand and flung across the deck, rolling off the edge and plummeting several levels down just for good measure. A merciless Force push drove her to her knees as Jacen closed in, gloating. His malevolent gaze raked over her, and Jaina could sense his predatory satisfaction, his absolute certainty that he had triumphed.

But he had miscalculated.

As Jacen raised his lightsaber for the killing blow, Jaina's hand shot into the folds of her robes and found the second lightsaber she'd concealed there, her mother's lightsaber. In the fraction of a second that his guard was down, she sprung up off her knees and drove the tip of Leia's magenta blade through his heart, putting her entire weight behind the blow. Jacen jerked and then went deathly still, and his lightsaber dropped from his hand, clattering against the deck plates.

Jaina withdrew her lightsaber, stricken. Jacen's lips twisted into a small ironic smile as he crumpled to the floor with a muted thud, the sound sickening in its finality.

Jaina screamed as she felt him die, her world reeling at what she'd done.

Somehow she made it back to the ship. She staggered up the boarding ramp, dazedly recognizing worried green eyes just before another wave of bitter sorrow overwhelmed her. She stumbled and fell forward into the proffered arms as hot tears scalded her cheeks. The arms closed around her, and consciousness fled as she sank into blessed oblivion. She remembered nothing more.

_Finis_


End file.
